RACING - Trainer has eye on $30k prize

Dick Stevenson still reckons he is a farmer, and this horse training gig at Uretiti is just something to keep him occupied in between visits to the main farming operation near Dargaville.
But the part-time gig is turning out to be not a bad earner, and might get even better if everything goes to plan for the $30,000 Stoney Bridge Whangarei Cup race at Ruakaka tomorrow.
Stevenson has a horse called Letsgoparty lining up as one of the favoured local runners for the premier Whangarei Racing Club title of the season, and he thinks his mare might just have the legs to keep the post-race celebrations in the north.
With a recent win at Ellerslie under her belt and a run of good form to add to the argument, Letsgoparty should be one to watch, he said.
But Stevenson has been in the racing game long enough to know anything could happen.
"She (Letsgoparty) is in pretty good form; when you line her up in the field is in pretty good company with her efforts lately, so we would like to think she will be on the money," Stevenson said.
"But it is a pretty fickle game, this racing game," he said.
With his own training facility set up on a beach-side property at Uretiti, Stevenson is unique in that he isn't based at the Whangarei Racing Club headquarters at Ruakaka.
But he is one of the flock when it comes to using the beach at Uretiti as his primary training track. It is that sand-based training that saw Letsgoparty arrive at his stables.
Stevenson bought into the horse with Whangarei-based owners Frank and Pam Taylor and Jack Campbell and has watched the mare develop into one of his best performers.
Now he thinks she is his best chance yet of getting the Whangarei Cup on the Stevenson household mantelpiece. In several years of trying, Stevenson has never had a Whangarei Cup success.
But his hopes of picking up the silverware might yet be blocked by a bevy of local rivals who are all contenders as well. Joerok, trained by Ruakaka rival Kenny Rae, lines up having won the $25,000 Foley Memorial at Avondale at his last start. It wouldn't be a Whangarei Cup without a horse from the Logan/Gibbs stables - they have Stabinthedark in the field who won his last start at Ruakaka last month.
The challengers don't stop there either. Figure of Speech, a horse that won the $70,000 Kiwifruit Cup at Tauranga last week is one, trained by Ross McCarroll, and Jovial Jock another. Jovial Jock ran second to Figure of Speech in the same race.
"We have never won a Whangarei Cup before. We have won quite a few races at Ruakaka before and have had a bit of success elsewhere - the Rotorua Cup and Kiwifruit Cup we have won before - but not the Whangarei Cup," Stevenson said.
"Letsgoparty is one of the horses really kicking at the door but not quite in that top echelon, so it would be good to bank a big one. It might help keep this operation at Uretiti viable," he said.